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𝐀 𝐂𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐒𝐄𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐃 to follow Victoria wherever she went. The kind of cold that would slowly seep into one's bones and through one's veins until their fingers turned numbed and their heart would never beat again.
She could still hear the rattling breathing of the Dementors tormenting her mind as she fell through the portal. Her body was letting her drop through the endless white-golden dream, until the wind got knocked out of her lungs as she hit the solid ground. She gasped sharply, rolling over onto her side and starting to cough. Her shallow breaths attempted to refill her lungs with air, even though Victoria herself felt like she couldn't breathe.
A faint light glinted in-between the thickly-grown branches and left a speckled pattern on the damp ground. The moist dirt stained Victoria's greying skin as she dug her hands into it to crawl upwards. She winced when a hard piece of metal slit her fingertip open and glanced down at her trembling hand.
The portal had brought her to a forest full of darkness, but even in the obscure light, Victoria could see the tip of an axe sticking out from the dirt. It had been completely rusted throughout its time exposed to the elements, though the blade was still sharp enough to cut through everything that was unlucky enough to touch it.
'Florence? Where are we?' Victoria asked and turned around. The solitude of the gelid woods met her with silence as she realised Florence wasn't there with her.
Tears stung in Victoria's dry eyes and she blinked to get rid of the painful force. Her arms cramped around her body to stop her muscles from twitching and trembling. She was shuddering violently, though she did not sob. She cried in silence as she dropped her head on her knees.
'I want to go home,' she cried to herself in desperation.
She wanted to see her father and mother again. To work in her family's wand shop as though nothing had ever happened. She wanted to go back to the time when she still remembered how to smile without restrain, when her body wasn't slowly slipping away from her. To before the curse that had tortured her soul to the never-ending depths of anguish and despair, and before the angst that numbed her nerves so her body could continue to endure the pain.
Her head slowly raised when she heard a twig snap not far from her. Within the shadows of the trees, a face was softly illuminated as it approached a speckle of light. His fair skin seemed silky and radiating an ethereal glow. Victoria immediately recognised those starlit oceans that she'd found herself nearly drowning in, with the bushy eyebrows that always rested in a manner that made him look grumpy.
'Edmund?' she whispered, the feeble hint of hope finding its way back to her voice. She scrambled back onto her feet and limped into his direction. She faltered, her knees giving in to its frailty, and fell back onto the ground. She cursed at the pain of her knees, but managed to stand back on her feet to call out Edmund's name again.
